Urad Dal

Good news!

Ryan and I made Real Indian Food last night! We bought some asafoedita to go with some urad dal found in Wegmans whilst on our jaunt to Ithaca (that's the sort of souvenir we buy - weird food that we have been unable to find elsewhere).

Perhaps this is bad news though. Because once I learned that I could make delicious Italian food at home that was usually better (if I do say so myself) than the stuff you find in most restaurants, I was put off going to Italian restaurants. I refuse to go to "Mediterranean" or "Greek" restaurants as I can make better humus and tastier tabbouleh at home for a fraction of the cost. Incidentally, most "Greek" or "Mediterranean" restaurants are called so as to hide the fact that they are serving tasteless, less interesting versions of Arab food, which is food I grew up eating, so I know how it's supposed to taste.

So perhaps now that we have the secret ingredient...I'll no longer like going to Indian restaurants. At least in this country. Because the 2 (well 3, if you count the deli in Russell Square at which I gobbled down 2 veggie samosas in a matter of minutes) Indian restaurants I ate at in London kicked the crap out of the restaurants in this country. Why? The food was appropriately spicy and flavourful. For a country that used to be famed for it's poor cuisine, the adopted national food of the British is far more adventurous than the Indian food in this country - and I live in the Bay Area. Where there are tons of Indians. If you didn't know.

I had leftover urad dal for elevensies, and I'm thinking about eating some more, except Ryan is probably thinking about having it for dinner (I'll bet he took some with him for lunch) and a really frustrating thing is to be looking forward to something you have at home to eat only to find it not there.